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Somalia: Strategic Central Town Recaptured

Somali government troops routed Islamist insurgents from a strategic central town after carrying out a predawn assault on Monday, witnesses said. The town, Beledweyne, has changed hands violently several times in recent months. It was a stronghold of the Shabab, an insurgent group that the United States says is a proxy for Al Qaeda. There was also fighting on Monday in Mogadishu, where witnesses said a mortar shell fired by African Union troops killed 12 people in the city’s Bakara Market. A spokesman for the African Union peacekeeping force said the troops returned fire after a group of insurgents had attacked one of their bases. He said he was not aware of any casualties. Shabab fighters in northern Mogadishu also killed two men charged with spying for the government and the Central Intelligence Agency in connection with the killing of a senior Qaeda suspect this month.

A version of this brief appears in print on September 29, 2009, on Page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Somalia: Central Town Recaptured. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe